While I was on leave celebrating my birthday, Ma and I took a day to visit Eltham Palace.
From the moat
Eltham Palace is a really strange mix of historical periods. It was given to Edward II in 1305 and the Great Hall was built in the 1470’s, it was a favourite royal palace for a while and was where Henry VIII lived as a child.
By the 1930’s, it had fallen into disrepair and was ‘bought’ by Stephen Courtauld and his wife, Virginia. They restored the great hall and built a house attached to it. The new part of the house was very modern for the time and it’s used a lot in films set in the 30’s and for fashion shoots. English Heritage took over the site sometime in the 1990’s and it’s worth a visit, if you like history or gardens (which obviously, I do!)
Great Hall Roof
I found the house interesting but I feel as I often do when I tour these places that I probably would have been driven bananas by the Courtaulds and their pet lemur!
Map roombathroomLibraryDining RoomDining room doorsServants area – much less luxurious Phone booth for the guests
August has been busy. I had a birthday, a week off, lots of work, lots of allotment things to do and some house work, it was busy.
Barney
Despite that, it feels like there’s not a lot to talk about, Ma and I are (until this afternoon) at my brother’s with the nephews, while my brother and sister in law have been in Amsterdam celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary and enjoying a child and dog free weekend. We’ve made pizza, and blackberry jam and I’ve walked the dog a lot…
Sonic Boom Monopoly
I love my nephews and the dog but I’m looking forward to being in my flat tonight, where I know where everything is and there is no background of boys bickering! Tomorrow, I’m off work for a haircut and some quality time on the plot. Then I’m back to work for the last three days of the week.
I can’t quite believe we’re going into September this week. Autumn comes around every year and every year I’m unhappy about it, if you didn’t already know this, I can refer you to my previous post, here. (For coping strategies go here and here.). One of the things that does help is preparing the flat and therefore myself for it, this year with the energy price cap rises and inflation at 10% things will look very different for a lot of people and for me prep for autumn has been more about the physical as well at mental preparation. I’ve done quite a bit of food preservation and some decluttering and tidying and I used the ‘cost of living bonus’ I got from work to buy a dehumidifier and heated airer to make drying washing easier and quicker in a colder house. (I’m very lucky!)
Nephew on a swing
The real prep in September is going to be sorting out the kitchen in preparation for the new one being installed in October, assuming that with the cost of living that’s still happening. I need to talk to the landlord and work out if he can still afford it and if he can’t (which is fair enough) make a plan about what he can do, because the sink and the oven are not going to make it through another winter!
Ma and I will start to tidy up the plot and start thinking about the winter work list. Then it’s the family birthday season (both nephews, Ben and Ma) and Christmas! It feels like five minutes ago that I was sowing tomato seeds, where did the year go?
It’s been a while, August has been fun, but I’ve been scattered and this space is always the first thing that stops when I’m full of overwhelm (good overwhelm, but man I need to pull myself together – more on that on Monday!)
I worked on the privatisation of England’s water in 1989. It was an organised rip-off. I’ve been saying it forever, but utilities are national resources and should not be privatised, for me that’s water, energy, trains and the BBC. They should be run for the benefit of the citizens of the country. Most of them (trains excepted) were built as monopolies and the privatisations were a botch and not truly competitive. Capitalism has to have limits, this should be the line.
I feel sure that I’ve mentioned that London and the South East of England is having a drought. It’s a issue, I can’t remember the last time we had rain and for the first time since I have lived in this flat, it didn’t rain on my birthday. It’s dry.
I’ve always tried to do heavy watering once a week and a top up water once during the week if it doesn’t rain and that has not been cutting it. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some of the tomatoes had blossom end rot and I was not ok with that.
Not good
So this past week, I have been going to water every day at twilight, and that has been working. Not everything gets watered every day, I’m not watering anything that’s done (blackcurrants, boysenberry) but everything that’s looking parched has responded accordingly. Overall the plot is looking a bit parched but the squashes, cukes and tomatoes are producing and setting fruit.
In the mini heatwave, watering has not been fun but that’s how it work.
The side effect of all this watering is that Ma and I have been able to get on with a little bit of work and some leisure time on the plot.
Friday dinner on the plot, in a heatwave
Ma has attended to the alpine strawberries, trimming the dead leaves, then watering really hard and mulching with fresh compost. They look much better and while this is all guess work from me, I suspect this is something I should have done in spring. Not much I can do about it now, I’ll just make sure that we do it again, in spring.
I’ve attended to the compost pile. I’m not great at composting but I needed to add a bokashi bin that was done fermenting and I had some shredded paper that needed adding too. I had noticed that the bin wasn’t breaking down as much as it usually does because it’s dry (did I mention the drought!). So I took half of the bin out, turned what was left and watered it. Then I added the bokashi, got it wet, added the shredded paper, got that really wet too. I added the rest of the bin back in, soaking it all as I went and finally, we added the waste from today, wetting that as well. I’ve been watering it every time I water the plot to encourage it to break down, I suspect that I’ll need to turn it again this weekend and do it more regularly and get better at making compost.
I was on leave the week after my birthday and my friend Richard (the builder of the polytunnel) recovered the roof for me, it looks great and I’m so grateful, I also need to paint the shed again this weekend.
I got a bunch of birthday plants this week. From Urban Herbs, the boozy collection, a herbal tea collection and some samphire. This has given me 14 new plants to deal with, some of the mints are duplicates so we’ll put them in bigger pots. I have a plant for some of the thymes and rosemary. So that needs to be sorted.
The polytunnel was getting a little bit crowded, so we’ve finally bought two mini greenhouses (half price too!) we’ve put one up and will put the other up this week. They will do as shelves for the time being and next spring I can put the covers on to help with the seedlings. I’m hoping that this will finally help me with growing more from seed, we’ll see. Also in the poly, I finally have a melon! Whether it will grow in time remains to be seen but I’m still happy about it!
A baby melon
We are also rich in summer squash, tomatoes and cucumbers, which is a nice place to be!
Produce haul
This weekend, I’m solo allotmenting (due to bus and tube and train strikes!) but this week we’ve also had rain (finally!) and next weekend, I’m away, babysitting my nephews. So I have a lot to do, but the things I really want to get done are here.
Paint the shed
Turn the compost
Put together the second mini greenhouse
Sow chard, beetroot, winter lettuce in modules
Sow more carrots, in the carrot bed
Weed the paths and if there is any, woodchip them
Plant some of the herbs and mint up into bigger pots
I have a confession, I have an ice lolly problem. I really, really like them. I didn’t realise it was a problem until the most recent heatwave, when ice lollies were better than dinner. I have a general rule that the majority of food I eat should not be ultra-processed (see here for what I mean by that) and that treats should be homemade, so if I want cake or biscuits, I have to make cake or biscuits. It was not happening with the lollies and I wasn’t about to give them up.
While I love mini milks, especially the vanilla ones, they are little, and I jumped at the chance to make grown up sized ones. (I have this ice lolly mould). These lollies are simple, to make, two ingredients and 110 calories per lolly. They do have condensed milk which is an ultra-processed ingredient, but this is my compromise and with 400ml of milk, I figure that it’s probably better than a FAB.
August is the best month of the year, everyone is on holiday so London is a bit emptier than usual, there is a Bank Holiday AND it’s my birthday! Which happened on Saturday. 49 isn’t much different from 48, although last week, my back ached a bit more, but due to the ‘water every day’ schedule on the plot rather than being closer to 50.
The week was pretty standard, my sleep lack of sleep issue is slowly improving, I just need to keep doing what I’m doing (going to bed a set times, getting up at the same time every day, eating well and exercising a bit more) and it will come right, I’m going to add wake up and bedtime yoga to the my routine while I’m on leave this week, to see if that helps. At best it will, at worse, I’ll get some stretches done that’ll help my back! I don’t enjoy who I am when I’m this tired (grumpy, emotional etc) and I can’t work out what’s sparked it this time. It could just be a come down from midsummer and a slide into slightly darker evenings, it’s been pretty dark 9.30pm when I’ve finished watering and I could just be reacting to that. Whatever it is, it’s annoying and I want it to stop! Tired and grumpy as I was last week, I was really happy that I’d spent some time on Sunday, getting myself prepped for the week, just knowing that I had food and clothes all ready to go with minimal effort was a gift I gave myself.
I did three days in the office on the trot, got a walk with Sue and really worked on the flat. There’s nothing actually wrong with the flat, I’m just feeling that it’s a bit cluttered and I’m currently looking at October for the new kitchen, which is going to mean packing everything up, so it feels like the more I can declutter now, the better it’ll be for then. I got all of the cardboard out of the flat, all the paper that needed shredding got shredded and is now turning to compost on the plot, tidied up the stuff lurking under my desk and really cleaned (on my hands and knees getting rid of all the dust in the corners) the bathroom and living room floors.
I’m off work this week until Friday. Ma and I were going to Eltham Palace on Wednesday but we are moving that up to today, because the later half of the week is going to be too hot! The rest of the week, I’m just leaning into middle age, tomorrow Richard is going to replace my shed roof, on Wednesday I need to sort out an outfit for a wedding on Saturday, and on Thursday Sue is taking me to Wisley with her RHS membership. I really feel that I’m in a place where my age has caught up with my interests!
I between all that I need to get the flat a bit more under control and keep the plants at the plot alive! Should be fun!
You’d think if the government was serious about fighting the climate crisis and reducing emissions, it would make vital energy-saving measures such as insulation mandatory and would dedicate military efficiency to building as many new zero-energy social homes as possible. Fat chance. It feels like the Tories’ whole raison d’etre is to keep people like me as poor as possible.
Blooming Essex garden points to future of horticulture in a heating UK. Having read this Ma thinks we should adopt some of the techniques here for the plot. We don’t do too badly, obviously my roses and irises are having a bad year but the lavenders are still alive! The verbena is done early but it’ll come back. I think we’re going to go for more mulching next spring on everything and I’m going to mulch the veg with straw when I plant it, I’m also going to put all the pots in drip trays next year and maybe experiment with olias for the tomatoes and squash.
It’s been a while, I’ve not really had the energy to write about the plot because I’m exhausted by all the watering. We’re in the driest July since 1911, and London and the South East has had just 11% of its average rainfall.
It’s dry, the beds are dry and the paths are cracking. Fruit is small, things are wilting and while I have lots of established plants, the soft fruit is having an amazing year, things are finishing already, we’ve got all the plums we’re going to get (about 4kg) and the leaves are already falling, in July. That’s not normal.
Some of my bigger tomatoes have blossom end rot. It’s caused by a lack of calcium, the fruits can’t get calcium because there isn’t enough water and the RHS says that you shouldn’t let soil dry out. Which is really difficult at the moment. So from the weekend, I’ve committed to daily watering, and will hope that’s enough. We already have a hosepipe ban on the allotment and it’s really difficult to keep everything moist when it never rains and I’m are hand watering with two, 10 litre watering pots. It takes about an hour so it’s a big chunk of time, especially on days when I’m in the office. Anyway I shall persevere because I want tomatoes. We’re nearly there with the gardeners sweetheart, there will definitely be tomatoes for my birthday!
Hang on little tomato
There will also be patty pans and straightneck squash, but there probably won’t be courgettes. There seem to have been some confusion and instead of courgettes, I have some kind of winter squash, the crooknecks seem to be patty pans as well. I have no idea what happened, whether it was labelling (I did it wrong) or the seeds I sowed weren’t what they said they were (someone else’s fault!) but I’m too far along in the season to do anything about it so bonus winter squash!
Not a courgette plant!
There will also be cucumbers, beetroot and potatoes. The potatoes have all been earlier that planned, we’ll replant four pots of potatoes in the hope we get more but this year it feels like we did the perfect amount. The beetroots are having a fantastic year, I think it’s because I didn’t thin them! Cukes are on their way.
We’re not having a great bean year, because of the heat and the drought, I’m going to pull them up next week and sow some more. Harvests have been a bit stop/start this year but we’ve got something every week and I’m still working through our onion harvest! The last of the carrots came up this week too, I sowed some more and we’ll see if I can keep them wet enough to germinate!
I’m glad it’s not my first year, it’s difficult but not as disheartening as last year when it was so wet. Global warming leads to unstable climate, this is where we are!
If you’re English, into football and not sexist, you’re probably feeling quite chuffed about last night’s result. I am, it’s great to see the woman’s team get the kudos they deserve and the football league started this weekend too, with the Premiership starting next weekend – happy birthday to me!
Aside from football related news, last week was a difficult week for me because I’m riding the PMT train, HRT helps even it out but my hormones are still working and they hate me. So migraines, vomiting and general yuck including being ridiculously tired but unable to stay asleep. It’s not been great and it’s not over yet. Which is a problem because I’m on leave next week so I need to be super productive this week because there is a ton to do.
So this weekend, I spent some time getting myself and the flat ready for a working week, when I have to be in office for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I food prepped, I’m up to date on the laundry and most of the housework (I’ve still not hoovered!), so I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
Because it’s really dry, I’m also going to water every night, I’m hoping that giving myself some exercise every night before bed, I’ll be tired enough to sleep and let’s face it the plot could do with the attention because it’s so dry.
The only other thing I did this week that wasn’t work, was meet Jo for coffee, always good to catch up but it was short and sweet hopefully, I’ll see her before the end of the year but she might not be able to get back.
Nic Dempsey 